Central Valley of California landcover compatibility with Sandhill Crane habitat use from 2008 to 2023

Much of the data used for this project was previously described in Ivey et al. (2016). After defining the study area, we incorporated proportional landcover data from the United States Department of Agriculture's Cropland Data Layer (CDL), which has a 30-meter resolution (USDA 2024). We then grouped existing landcover categories into those with similar taxonomy, considering Sandhill Crane habitat use preferences.

Next, we merged all landcovers into two groups that categorized them as compatible (i.e., “suitable”) or incompatible (i.e., “unsuitable”) with Sandhill Crane use based on existing habitat studies and expert knowledge. The dataset is provided as five separate comma-separated value (CSV) files: (1) foraging locations used to delineate the study area (Foraging_Locations.csv), (2) proportional landcover classified as compatible or incompatible with Sandhill Crane habitat use (Compatible_Landcover.csv), (3) relative coverage of landcover types important for Sandhill Crane habitat provisioning (Functional_Landcover.csv), (4) reclassification of CDL categories as compatible or incompatible (CDL_Reclass_Compatible.csv), and (5) reclassification of CDL categories by functional relevance to Sandhill Crane habitat (CDL_Reclass_Functional.csv).

This dataset has the capacity to directly inform decisions regarding Sandhill Crane habitat conservation in the Central Valley of California. It can be analyzed in several ways, including via Mann-Kendall Trend Tests (τ). Key Citations: Ivey, G.L., C.P. Herziger, D.A. Hardt, and G.H. Golet. 2016.

Historic and recent winter sandhill crane distribution in California. Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop 13:54-66. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 2024.

Cropland Data Layer. National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Marketing and Information Services Office, Washington, D.C., USA. <croplandcros.scinet.usda.gov/>